


Dulling Blades

by AlmondBlossomsTC



Category: The Enemy Series - Charlie Higson
Genre: Gen, M/M, The relationship is implied? Budding?, this is a thinkpiece
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-22
Updated: 2020-09-22
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:55:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26592520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlmondBlossomsTC/pseuds/AlmondBlossomsTC
Summary: Takes place roughly around the end of Book 4If you spoil the following books for me on god I will stitch your eyelids to your kneecaps
Relationships: Ed/Kyle
Kudos: 8





	Dulling Blades

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this in like an hour and it shows

Kyle found him and without hesitation, sat and joined in. Ed sighed and budged over so he wouldn’t be jabbing the other boy with his mortuary sword while he cleaned and sharpened it. 

“Found ya,” Kyle gloated, heaving his own axe into his lap and waiting for his turn with Ed’s whetstone. 

Ed shot him a look. “Wasn’t hiding,” he grunted, dropping his gaze back to the blade on his knee. 

“Sure you was,” Kyle scoffed. He nudged Ed with his elbow and Ed wanted to smack him. “You’ve been sore at me since earlier.” His tone was light despite the accusation. It certainly didn’t sound as though he gave a shit whether Ed was ‘sore’ or not. 

He ignored him. So what if he was? Didn’t mean they had to talk about it. 

Seemed he wasn’t going to get the chance to decline. “You HATE it when I bring up Jack, ey?”

“Yes.” _Piss off, Kyle._

“Worked, though,” he continued. “Got ya movin’. Got us out.”

“Kyle.”

“You’re a good leader, Ed, mostly, and a good bloke, always, but you’re shit at moving past things. S’enough new bodies on the daily without carting around the old ones any longer. It’ll just slow you down.”

“Don’t start.”

“Didn’t start - that was me finishin’. Pass the rock, would you?”

Ed tried to concentrate on the motion of the whetstone along his sword. Breathe in as it hissed down the blade, breathe out as he drew it back up. The thing was plenty sharp enough already, but sharpening it made him look busy enough that the others would leave him be for a few minutes. Most of the others. Kyle remained unshakeable. 

At least he seemed content not to pester further, instead making feints toward the block whenever Ed brought it too close. He never truly attempted to grab it, but he got too close a few times. The silence was companionable enough, as most things with Kyle tended to be. He hadn’t felt this comfortable in someone else’s presence since before the disaster started. Even when he was being a pest, he knew Kyle would have his back in any fight that might crop up. 

“You’ll take your fingers off like that,” Ed warned once, when Kyle made a swipe near the edge of his blade. 

“There’s ten of ‘em. I’ve got spares,” Kyle ribbed him, taking the distraction to lunge forward and grab it at last. He settled back into his seat with a grin and a double-finger salute at Ed. Ed could have gotten up and left him there to enjoy his prize, but didn’t. It was entertaining enough watching Kyle lamely try to sharpen Brain-Biter instead. 

“Don’t take that attitude into fights,” Ed smiled, just a little. “Always better to come out with just as many as you went in with.”

Kyle rolled his eyes. “Save your breath, Ed. Never lost one yet, ‘ave I?”

“Bullshit.” Ed screwed up his face, making his scar pull horribly. He could feel it from jaw to hairline. 

“God’s own. Don’t lead much - that helps - but only folks I’ve lost in all this were my mum, right at the start.”

“No friends? Teammates? You must have lost-“

“Never have,” Kyle said easily, finally finding a rhythm with the whetstone. “No baggage in the world, me.”

That... hadn’t been the answer Ed was expecting. Horribly enough, it wasn’t even what he’d been hoping for. Kyle seemed so put-together in the face of all this, unflappable, that unconsciously, Ed had been hoping that he’d made it through the same hardships (as so many of them had) and had come out better and stronger for it. Hoped that someone else had known a loss like he had, and managed not to blame themselves. Not let it consume them. 

There was a shade of anger in the realization. In knowing that Kyle was giving him so much shit without knowing what the hell he was even talking about. But mostly, he felt cold. He didn’t wish this on him, not really. He wouldn’t wish it on just about anyone. 

“Hey.” Kyle kicked him in the knee. “What end s’is thing start from again?”

Ed gestured vaguely and Kyle kept scraping away at his axe with the tool. It had worked to distract him from spiralling. But he still had _questions_.

“You beak an awful lot for someone’s never been there,” he snipped, not ready to let it go. “You don’t know. You can’t.”

Kyle shot him a sideways look, still maintaining his irritating air of unflappability. “Don’t intend to, boss. Not my style.”

“You can’t plan against that,” Ed argued. He fumbled with his long sword for a moment before he managed to resheathe it. He didn’t want to get up just yet, though, and kept his eyes on his hands. “You won’t know when it’ll happen, and you won’t know what to do when it does.”

“Sure I will.” Ed could punch him. He looked up to yell at him, but was distracted as his whetstone was tossed back. Almost fumbling it, he was distracted as as Kyle stood and stretched. His eyes snapped up to the bigger boy’s face as he grinned. 

“Your heart’s a damn sight bigger than mine, Ed,” Kyle teased. “You’ve got room in there for all sorts. Me? More of a modest duplex.”

“What’re you on about?”

He got tapped on the nose for his trouble. “You keep picking up with kids that can’t take care’a themselves. Yeah, yeah, that’s part of your whole thing, but no damn wonder you get your knickers knotted so easy.”

Ed stood as well and looked up at him mutinously. “Someone’s got to, Kyle. It’s not all ‘survival of the fittest’, ‘survival of the biggest’-“

“You’re the boss, boss.” Kyle was still just smiling, dopey as ever. “Can’t deny though, it’s smarter to only fall in with folks you know have it together.”

“You can’t _know_ that though, that’s what I’ve _been saying_! Anything can happen out there!” Jack- “-all sorts of damn good fighters-“ Bam- “-can go down like _that_ when you’re in the thick of it-“ Adele- “-and besides all that, there’s a hell of a lot more to it all than straight-on battles!” Frederique. Tish. Brendan. Louise. Poor little Liam. 

The others would have heard his outburst. Ed buttoned back up and squared his shoulders, waiting for Kyle to either mock him or hug him. He thought he might punch him for either one. 

But no, Kyle just scratched the back of his head and conceded, “You’re right on that. Can’t guarantee loads of folks’ safety. Thing is, though, right-“

Kyle leaned in and Ed was struck by how rank his breath was. Probably all of them, if he thought on it, but rarely did anyone get close enough to his twisted face for him to know. 

“Won’t let nothin’ happen to _you_ s’long as I’m there to stop it - and good luck gettin’ rid of me.”

By the time Ed had processed the words as a sentence rather than individual pieces, Kyle had knocked their foreheads together gently, straightened up, and hefted his axe up onto his shoulder. As he made for the door, he added over his shoulder, “Brush your teeth, mate, hell! Dylan’s prob’ly got some paste around.” He laughed himself almost out of the room while Ed was still planted in place, unsure why he felt so overheated. It took him a second, but he managed to catch Kyle at the doorframe, grabbing the back of his filthy sweatshirt and tugging him back.

"Even if-" _Even if it's just me, which, Kyle, for God's sake, what does that even mean?_ "-you still can't guarantee that! We're both in danger all the bloody time, mate. Something could happen to either of us." _It's stupid to think otherwise._ Kyle wasn't stupid enough to just be living in denial all this time. 

When the bigger boy wheeled around again, Ed almost stepped back. Kyle's lip was curled up in a bizarrely confrontational smile, like a great ape about to attack. He'd seen less frightening grins on sickos. 

His posture imposing, Kyle squared on with him again, raising his eyebrows. "Yer right, I can't stop you gettin' yourself in shit. 'Specially not when you keep blundering into the thick of things to rescue every runt what crosses your path." _That_ was a longstanding conflict between them. But Kyle continued - "Can't stop you getting hurt. Can't stop you dying. But-"

Ed was shoved back, hand in the centre of his chest, and almost tripped over himself. His guard had been down, holed away in the safehouse with just Kyle to contend with. But now the other boy was advancing on him, his mood clearly no longer quite so easy. It wasn't activating Ed's instincts in the same way a proper attack would, but he couldn't tell what Kyle was feeling or thinking. 

Then, all at once, the boy was relaxed again, stopping in place and shrugging, grin going easy. "But _you_ can't stop me, neither. Not getting rid of me, like I said. And anything wants to get to you will have a _hell_ of a time cuttin' through me first. _That,_ I can guarantee." Ed blinked, watching as Kyle's shoulders bounced with a silent laugh.

"What?" Ed wondered stupidly. "You can't-"

"Can. So be a lil' more careful, ey? Can't both of us go falling on your damn sword." Kyle nodded to Ed's mortuary sword, slung at his waist, then lunged forward at him. Ed staggered back a little again, but it had been a feint, and Kyle laughed at him again. That time, he backed out of the room, giving him a little curtsey in the doorway. "Good evenin', boss. If you're planning on sleeping tonight, best hurry up and claim a good spot. The babies've taken all the soft bits of floor already." He shot Ed what might have been a clumsy wink before ducking properly out of sight into the hall. Ed was left with questions and an elevated heartrate that he could feel in his guts.

**Author's Note:**

> If you’re here from the enemy discord - how y’all doin ovo
> 
> Now with ~edits~


End file.
